Experts

Starting a Texas garden

I want to start my first flower bed but I'm stumped on how to start. I've started digging up the dirt but I live in North Texas and our soil is very hard clay. Do I dig up the clay and replace it with gardening soil? If so, what do you do with the discarded clay? I'm don't want to compost. Thank you, Beginner Britt

Hi, Well every great garden starts from the ground up. If your soil is compacted and hard packed, then you'll need to loosen and improve it with generous amounts of fresh topsoil, organic matter, rotted manure or compost. Also, it depends on what you want to grow. if you are fine with planting native Texas plants for a natural landscape then you might be able to get by with what you have. if, however, you want to grow flowers or vegetables, you'll need to do some work to improve the location. Or, settle for gardening in containers.